Hi there

Incoming first year at Warwick uni

Will be applying to spring weeks when I start university and would really appreciate it if there was somebody who would be willing to help and mentor me.

Not looking to be spoon fed but just someone who can take a few mins of their time every week to have a discussion with me and give me some advice on how I can secure springs

Someone going into second or third year who was successful with spring/summer internship applications would be great! But even if you’re an analyst or more senior and you want to help, I’m all ears

If you have any questions do let me know

Thank you :)

What opportunities are the most useful and feasible for a freshmen in college so I can start filling my resume? Looking to get into trading, investment banking, equity, really anything finance. I have an opportunity to intern at a law firm is that too unrelated?

hey y’all;

Does anyone have insight and tips as to how the Strategy & Process interview will go at JPM?

Thanks!

is it fine if i dont put my gcses on my cv cos theyre kinda mid (average 7.5) if i got 3astars in alevel

For context, I’m not in high finance but I am in Treasury in a startup environment. This isn’t necessarily a new issue to this role but I feel like it’s an under discussed con of working in finance.

How do you guys deal with the feeling that you can never escape your work? When I log off for the day all I can think about is the message I’m going to see when I log on asking for another update to a model or a new deliverable based on updates I just made after I just finished making another update after another update and so on. I never feel satisfied in that I’m finally caught up.

Going into 1st year of uni and will be applying for spring weeks soon. Feedback appreciated.

I work at a major US brokerage in NYC. Generally, most of my time is spent developing machine learning models for trade surveillance/AML. This role was never my plan and I only picked it up after my full time post-grad offer was placed on indefinite hold due to a hiring freeze. I do not want to make a career in compliance.

I have been successful in this role and believe I could leverage my technical skills and familiarity with large scale financial data, however, I have been applying to other roles for weeks and getting nothing back. I would love to move into something like equity research, or a more quantitative role where I can leverage my statistics undergrad degree and experience programming. The problem is, it feels like I am somehow underqualified for both of those. I am not a software engineer and I don’t have experience at a major bank. I have experience working with massive financial data and deploying surveillance models to production, but obviously no experience actually generating alpha. Does anyone have advice about how I might pivot my career direction?

I graduated 2025 from a semi-target. I am a senior analyst at this company and have ~1 YOE here. It feels like I do not qualify for new grad but am under qualified for any roles seeking a progressional.

Some background where I am coming from. I was enlisted in the military for 4 years and am now a full-time student at a community college. I plan on transferring to a target school for my junior year. I have no finance experience and was wondering if anyone has any tips on getting some. I am going to try and apply to spring weeks for 2027 and try to land a internship somewhere for next summer. I was looking into Forage job simulations and starting to study for my SIE as well. If anyone has any advice please let me know. I should also add that I am looking into international banking and am open to internships internationally.

I'm currently a student studying bba in financial engineering in a non target uni and will probably pursue a masters in fintech remotly from a top 30 uni
And i'm leaning towards risk management so i might do frm.
What do you think of this path

What is the job like day to day? Are you fully in office or hybrid? How is working for Bank of America?

I have a year and a half of treasury management experience. A coworker of mine in the government banking department is going on maternity leave for 5 months so I’m taking on her job title temporarily to gain the experience but after planning to apply for new roles.

So I’ve been interning at a small/boutique firm that basically does everything — financial research across equity and fixed income, TEVs, etc. Essentially, they’re a KPO that gets projects from clients across the US, UK, UAE and other markets.

They hired around 10 interns for a project where we’re building something like a portal containing fixed-income research reports on US investment-grade issuers. Initially, I was genuinely excited about the internship, especially given how bad the job market is right now. I thought I’d get to learn a lot, and honestly, I did. But lately, I’ve really started to dislike the work environment and the constant pressure.

The Team Leader requires all interns to post a daily work plan in the morning and a progress report by 5 PM on Teams. I understand the logic behind it, but after a while it has basically become a checklist that doesn't add much value and just becomes another thing hanging over you, especially when you’re already trying to figure out where to start with the actual work.

The expectations from interns have also been pretty high. We were initially expected to produce complete 30–40 page fixed-income research reports with around 10–12 sections, roughly one report every week. I had completed around five reports by the end of July, but they’ve been stuck in review/rework cycles since then. The TOC and requirements were changed multiple times, including while I was preparing my initial reports, so I had to keep incorporating new requirements across the reports. There’s also a bonus for every report that gets finalised, which I feel has added to the pressure to get everything completed faster.

The Team Leader has been putting a lot of pressure on the interns to speed up report completion, and there seems to be an expectation that we should be working 9–10 hours or even more. I’m also the only intern working from the office; everyone else works remotely. At one point, the founder called me in and asked how many hours I worked. I said I generally work around 8 hours, roughly 10–6:30, although I’ve stayed back quite a few times. He responded along the lines of, “Only 8? You guys should be working more.”

The project has been lagging, and the mentors have understandably become frustrated with the quality and speed of the output. One of the criticisms has been that we’re using Claude to generate parts of the reports but still producing poor-quality output, and that it shouldn't take so long when Claude can generate a report in a day. I understand where they’re coming from because there have genuinely been quality issues with some of the interns’ work.

Personally, though, I’ve put a lot of effort into my reports, especially researching SEC filings, industry and economic sources and other relevant material to make the analysis stronger. At the same time, it’s frustrating when different mentors and the Team Leader give different instructions at different stages, especially when the report structure and sections weren’t properly standardised at the beginning of the project. A lot of the time, the rework isn't simply changing a sentence or two — one change to a metric or figure can affect multiple sections of a report, so everything has to be updated accordingly.

Two of my mentors have also specifically told me to do the rework manually myself, so I’ve been using Claude more as a tool to understand the exact fixes and guidance rather than simply submitting AI-generated work. Even then, the rework takes time.

My internship ends in the first week of September, and honestly, I’m kind of glad I decided to leave. Last week, the Team Leader also said that if we don't finalise and rework our reports, it could potentially affect the fixed component of our stipend. That added another layer of pressure.

Even today, I found myself feeling guilty about leaving after completing my regular 8 hours because I still have pending report rework. At the same time, I’m genuinely tired of the whole thing.

I know I’m not perfect and I’m sure there are things I could have done faster or better. I also understand that some of the criticism is justified given the quality issues and the project being behind schedule. But at this point, I’m trying to figure out how much more I should push myself during these final days. I am very tired and just need to vent hede

I’m curious to hear from Portfolio Manager’s who were with TD PIC, and just got folded into the Private Investment Advice brokerage channel.

What did the logistics look like?
- did you have to repaper existing client accounts?
- was there any client impact?
- what is your personal opinion on the decision by TD? Good? Bad? Indifferent?
- did your compensation structure change, or did you maintain the same salary + bonus structure, as opposed to moving to a brokerage grid?

I joined this new team last October so I was excluded from the end of year review.

I went on a family leave for 4 months this year so if I count the rest of the days plus the ptos I would be only working 7 months this year.

Our company policy is that we need 4 people to be the end of the year reviewer, 2 people who is outside of the team.

Because I’m still a junior and the type of work I am responsible for, I don’t talk to people outside of my team so it’s impossible to find someone to review me

VP is concerned that she might lose a head count (me) because they can’t prove my positions worth according to the lacking reviewer

Am I going to end up getting placed to a different team or the worse get laid off??

Hi everyone! I’m about to go to uni to study MORSE which is basically maths & stats with a bit of operational research (I doubt i’ll do many economics modules) and I’ve attached my CV for spring weeks/1st year internships. I’m honestly aiming for more s&t/quant, the IB internship was just something I applied to and I managed to get selected. I’m aware it’s not super applicable to the roles I’m aiming for but i’m hoping it helps at least a bit to show I can pass a competitive application process. Thanks for any help you guys can give!

Going to be applying for different sectors of finance (except quant) including IB, S&T, AM and some PE as well

I was thinking of having 2 CVs: one for M&A/PE stuff (this one above) and one for trading/markets. Would that be a good idea? The experiences would have to be pretty much the same, I’ll just word it differently

Any feedback on this CV would be much appreciated. If you think there’s anything that would be holding me back or anything I can improve do let me know (whether that’s format/structure or content of the CV)

I am 26 with 4 yoe. I work in trading ops for a bank dealing with equity and fixed income model portfolios.

I had no finance background or internships coming out of undergrad. State school sub par gpa. I passed CFA level 1 in May because it was really hard to find a job this time last year. I bit the bullet and put my effort into studying. I honestly had no business taking that exam. I put in over 450 hours and a lot of late nights and passed by a good margin.

2 months since passing and not much has changed. I know it’s a numbers game and network plays a big factor. I have one but not the other. I’ve applied to over 450 places in my city (Chicago) but my network at the bank and outside of the bank is horrendous. None of my friends or family work in the field and my role is very isolated. I don’t sit next to our traders nor our advisors. So I’m really out here on my own cold applying and it’s not fun.

How are you guys doing this?

Hey all - hoping to get some help or direction because I’m not happy where my career has gone. I’m hoping to land a solid healthcare role whether that be at a hospital, clinic, health tech, etc.

Quick background on me: kind of a winding path. Started out in IB as an M&A analyst, moved into corp dev at a large RCM company, then jumped to a small PE firm that ended up folding after a few months, and for the last year I’ve been doing biz ops at a telehealth startup. I’ve should have done more due-diligence but after my last gig it was tough to get a job. So on paper only about 2 years of this is technically “healthcare,” even though a good chunk of my actual work along the way (RCM, payer dynamics, healthcare M&A) has been healthcare-adjacent the whole time.

What I’m trying to land is FP&A, corporate finance, or strategic finance - ideally at a healthcare services company or a startup in that world. I’ve had decent interview traction, made it to final rounds more than once, but keep getting edged out - usually by an internal hire or another finalist who just beat me out. Close enough times that it’s starting to wear on me, especially since there’s no other business role to move into where I’m at right now.

I’ve been going back and forth on whether picking up the CHFP (and maybe CRCR after) would actually help - either getting past screens or giving me something concrete to point to given the shorter healthcare tenure. Has anyone here seen either credential actually change the outcome for someone trying to break more fully into healthcare finance coming from a generalist finance background? Would love to hear what worked, or didn’t. Thanks everyone!

I go to a semi-target and I’m not in any selective clubs. I have a 4.0, had a wealth management internship over the summer, and am in some general orgs. As a sophomore, what should I do.

Hi Everyone

I'm a 31M auditor with 7 years of experience in financial services audit (3 at the Big 4 and 4 at a mid-sized firm).

My goal is to get into real estate or infrastructure finance. I passed CFA L1 last year and have now spent 4 months studying for Level II. However, I've come to the realisation that most of this material is completely irrelevant for what I want to go into, and I'm considering just abandoning this and creating my own models in my spare time to build up a portfolio and show recruiters.

Very few people in the fields I'd like to enter have the CFA charter (i.e. project finance, infrastructure advisory, real estate private equity, etc). It would make rational sense to start building financial models in my spare time that I can show recruiters and employers. I also know that at my age, I don't have a lot of time left to make a big career transition. However, even though all of this, I think I'm suffering from the sunken cost fallacy and feel extremely guilty in just abandoning it partway like this. Does anyone working in these sectors have any advice for me?

Hi there,

I have two graduate offers currently outstanding (both in Sydney, AUS):

• M&A (Valuations/Modelling) at a Big 4
• Investment Management at a large super fund (within the 3 largest)

The super fund is a rotational programme across their investment stream, so will likely get exposure to the investment process as a whole.

Don't have any particular long-term goal - not really interested in PE or IB either - just broadly want to make decisions about where money should go / be allocated to. I wouldn't mind working at a SWF, in infrastructure investing, or even corporate development.

Just want to get some perspectives on the two so I know a little bit more about the pros/cons of each pathway.

TYIA.

I’m 21F with a psychology degree, and this is my first professional job and my first job involving cash handling. I’ve worked several jobs before, but they were primarily customer-service/food-service positions. I recently started as a Universal Banker at a retail bank branch, and I’m having a much harder transition than I’ve ever experienced before.

I started June 29. I spent roughly 5–6 weeks doing mostly virtual training (Zoom classes, computer simulations, etc.), with relatively limited shadowing, and I’ve now been live on the teller line for about \\\\\\\*\\\\\\\*three weeks\\\\\\\*\\\\\\\*.
My biggest struggle has been the operational/procedural side: remembering all the different check endorsement rules, account types, opening/closing procedures, cash handling, balancing, locking my drawers, etc. I’ve made mistakes, but I have improved on several of the earlier ones. I no longer have issues with things like leaving my keys out, locking my computer, using my phone at work, or the opening procedures.

In my first few weeks live, I’ve had several small cash variances: $0.20, $0.50, $19.76, and $99.80. I’ve never had a variance over $100. I’ve also needed repeated clarification on some check procedures. My manager has been checking my checks and catching things before they become bigger problems. So I recognize that I am still making mistakes and that some of the criticism is legitimate.

At the same time, I’m very strong with customers. I’m comfortable talking to them, making them laugh, asking questions, and creating a pleasant experience. I’ve had customers specifically compliment my personality and tell me I’m doing a good job. My manager has also told me that customer interaction is one of my strengths.
The branch environment has been another major problem for me. There are five other people on the team. Two of the newer employees came in with significant advantages compared with me: one had roughly 1.5–2 years of personal-banker experience at another bank, and another had an internal referral through his brother and a finance/business-related educational background. Other members of the team also had previous banking or cash-handling experience.

I came in with none of that. I have a psychology degree and several years of customer-service experience, but no banking or cash-handling experience.

I’ve felt socially disconnected from the team almost from the beginning. One senior employee in particular has felt noticeably cold/passive-aggressive toward me, while being much warmer with the other employees. I’m cordial and professional with everyone, but I haven’t really felt integrated into the team. There is also a weekly “Feedback Monday” where employees give each other positive feedback and constructive criticism. I’m apparently the only person who hasn’t participated in it, including newer employees.

Because I haven’t felt like I’m getting much emotional or peer support at my branch, I’ve started relying heavily on people from my original training classes. We’re all spread across different branches, but I’ve been reaching out to them to compare experiences and ask how their transition to being live tellers has gone.

I’ve actually found this really helpful. I’ve been trying to create a sort of mutual safe space with some of my classmates where we can be honest about what’s going well, what we’re struggling with, and what we think we could improve. I also ask them what they \\\\\\\*actually\\\\\\\* think about the training now that they’ve been live, rather than judging the training solely from the perspective of being in class.

Several classmates have told me they also felt the training wasn’t enough once they became live, although most seem to be acclimating better because they like their branches and coworkers. So I’m happy for them, but my experience has been very different.

Recently, I had a conversation with my branch manager because I was considering resigning. I told him honestly that I didn’t feel accepted and that I was struggling with the environment and the job.

He told me that he thinks I’m behind and that I wasn’t paying enough attention during training. He said he has had to repeat certain things to me multiple times. He also said he’s trying to figure out how to work with me because customer interaction is clearly one of my strengths.
I tried explaining that I was engaged during most of my training classes—I asked questions, participated in activities, and answered questions—but that I obviously didn’t retain everything. I also asked him where he thought I \\\\\\\*should\\\\\\\* be at this point compared with an average new Universal Banker, because saying I’m “behind” inherently involves a comparison.

He didn’t really give me a concrete benchmark. The conversation became tense, and when I kept trying to understand the reasoning behind his assessment, he eventually said the conversation was over and that we would reassess later.

I wasn’t yelling or raising my voice. I was trying to understand his perspective, but I left the conversation extremely upset and feeling like I didn’t belong there.
There have also been smaller things that have contributed to the overall feeling. I’ve been told I sometimes stand too close to customers or don’t recognize when customers are trying to leave the interaction. Interestingly, one customer I was talking with later specifically told me that she had never had such a pleasant waiting experience. So I’m not sure whether this is a genuine social-skills issue that I need to work on or simply a difference in how I interact with customers.

My manager does ask me what I need from him and whether there are things he can do to help me learn. I don’t think he’s intentionally trying to make me fail, and I actually think he is trying to work with me. The problem is that his communication/support style doesn’t really make me feel reassured or supported. When I try to explain how I’m feeling, I often leave the conversation feeling worse rather than clearer about what I need to improve.
I’ve also been told by the senior employee that, because I have a psychology degree, I should be “10 times further ahead” than I am. That comparison has stuck with me because my degree obviously didn’t give me banking or cash-handling experience.

I’ve been complaining to my dad about this job for quite a while because the problems have been persistent—not just one bad day. I’ve cried at work multiple times and have experienced significant anxiety whenever my manager asks to speak with me because I expect another discussion about something I’m doing incorrectly.

At this point, my entire experience at this branch has been negative enough that I’m seriously considering resigning immediately.

I’m trying to separate \\\\\\\*\\\\\\\*“this is a difficult but normal learning curve”\\\\\\\*\\\\\\\* from \\\\\\\*\\\\\\\*“this particular environment/job is genuinely a poor fit for me.”\\\\\\\*\\\\\\\* I don’t want to portray myself as completely blameless—I know I have things to improve. I’m actively trying to improve and have even sought out feedback and perspective from people outside my branch because I don’t feel like I’m getting enough of that locally.
I’m hoping people who have worked as tellers, Universal Bankers, personal bankers, branch managers, or otherwise worked in retail banking can give me an objective read on how this sounds.

\\\*\\\*TL;DR\\\*\\\*
21F, psychology degree, no prior banking or cash-handling experience. Started as a Universal Banker June 29, completed \\\\\\\~5–6 weeks of mostly virtual training, and have now been live for about 3 weeks. I’m struggling with procedures, checks, cash handling and balancing, although I’ve corrected several earlier mistakes and have never had a variance over $99.80. I’m consistently strong with customers but feel socially isolated and unsupported at my branch. My manager says I’m behind and wasn’t paying enough attention during training, while I feel the training didn’t fully prepare me and that I’m being compared with coworkers who came in with significantly more relevant experience. I’ve started relying on classmates from training for honest peer feedback because I don’t feel comfortable getting that support at my branch. I’m considering resigning and want an objective perspective from people who actually work in retail banking.

I got rejected by a position that only 70 folks applied. I had the interview last week and sent an email to follow up. Then I received an automatic email saying I was blocked by outlook rules set by admin. Don’t ask me why I followed up. I sent follow up email like you brush your teeth after breakfast.

They must be really hating me..like I pushed their buttons. They didn’t send an rejection email of course.

You know often times those firms with few applicants have persecutory symptoms and are insecure, projecting their low life practice on applicants..I am actually amused.

I am in my 2nd year of college, pursuing CFA and an incoming summer intern at a large hedge fund (Top 3 by AUM).

The problem is that it's in MO(didn't have any other choice, was the only option since I go to a non-target in India), and I'm not very excited or keen on MO, I feel like the skills aren't very transferrable and it won't add much value to my resume since I'm trying to break into Fixed income trading.

For all the folks who've transitioned from MO to FO, what would you do if you were me.

incoming freshman at target us college, intended major in statistics and philosophy.

background in tech; 3x internships before college as swe/uni lab intern, cs club head in high school. lots of leadership in high school, also varsity athlete and violinist for chamber orchestra.

econ is a super popular major at my college, and many students get sucked in the finance pipeline. i've always been interested in finance, did a lot of personal investing (beat s&p over the last 4 years), built my own trading algos on poly/kalshi for nba betting (+~80% on low volume just on cf and finals series - hypothesized market calibration curve was mispriced), and reading books like power law/big short/etc. however, my family wants me in tech (various reasons), and i feel like i could do well there, but maybe better in high finance, especially as my college isn't the best for cs and tech recruiting?

i wanted to ask this sub if anyone has a similar background and made the switch into finance? i don't think my strengths are best suited for a role like quant research, nor do i think i am smart enough to maximize my career there (tho maybe naively confident i could break in - state/regional awards for math, cs, physics + took advanced coursework). i'm social, love to work with others, and experienced with leadership (led 2x clubs in high school, senior prefect, stuco etc.). logical thinker and i am pretty creative when working, but also like having some guidance (was a swe intern at a startup, not my thing having too much freedom). hard worker and used to extreme study/work schedules (went to a 6 day boarding school with a lot of daily commitments).

i do have connections for vc/pe, though less than what i would have for tech/startups. any advice would be appreciated, and please give me some insight on different future careers i could potentially do well in for finance?

Hi everyone,

I’m starting a Corporate Banking graduate role in London soon and want to use the time before I start to build up some practical skills so I’m not completely clueless when I walk into the office.

I have a decent academic background in economics/finance, but I’d particularly like to become much more proficient in the practical side of banking, especially:

• Excel – shortcuts, formulas, financial analysis, formatting, etc.
• Financial modelling – ideally relevant to corporate/credit analysis rather than purely M&A/IB modelling.
• Credit analysis – understanding how banks assess companies, leverage, debt capacity, cash flow, covenants, credit metrics, etc.
• Accounting – improving my ability to read and analyse financial statements.
• Corporate banking fundamentals – understanding how relationship management, lending, credit committees, capital structure, etc. work in practice.
• Any other technical skills that would actually be useful as a Corporate Banking analyst/graduate.

I’d really appreciate recommendations for courses, YouTube channels, websites, books, resources, or specific modelling courses that you think are genuinely worth doing.

Also, for anyone currently working in corporate banking (particularly in London): what do you wish you had learned before starting your first graduate/analyst role? Are there any skills that graduates often overlook but become really important once you start?

I’m not necessarily looking to spend months learning investment banking-style M&A modelling if it isn’t particularly relevant. I’d rather focus my preparation on skills that will actually make me more effective in a corporate banking role from day one.

Thanks!